Gyros have been used to measure rotation rates or changes in angular velocity about an axis. A basic conventional fiber optic gyro (FOG) includes a light source, a beam generating device, and a coil of optical fiber coupled to the beam generating device that encircles an area. The beam generating device transmits light beams into the coil that propagate in a clockwise (CW) direction and a counter-clockwise (CCW) direction along the core of the optical fiber. Many FOGs utilize glass-based optical fibers that conduct light along a solid glass core of the fiber. The two counter-propagating (e.g., CW and CCW) beams experience different pathlengths while propagating around a rotating path, and the difference in the two pathlengths is proportional to the rotational rate.
In a resonator fiber optic gyro (RFOG), the counter-propagating light beams are desirably monochromatic (e.g., in a single frequency) and recirculate through multiple turns of the fiber optic coil and for multiple passes through the coil using a recirculating device such as a fiber coupler. The beam generating device modulates and/or shifts the frequencies of each of the counter-propagating light beams so that the resonance frequencies of the resonant coil may be observed. The resonance frequencies for each of the CW and CCW paths through the coil are based on a constructive interference of successively recirculated beams in each optical path. A rotation of the coil produces a shift between in the respective resonance frequencies of the resonant coil and the frequency difference, such as may be measured by tuning the CW beam and CCW beam frequencies to match the resonance frequency shift of the coil due to rotation, indicates the rotation rate.
The RFOG may encounter a variety of anomalies that decrease the accuracy of the rotational rate measurement. Polarization-induced errors are initiated by light coupling from one polarization state to another within the fiber resonator. For instance, such light coupling may result from fiber couplers that incidentally couple light into a second polarization mode, either from one optical fiber to an adjacent optical fiber or within the same fiber. As a result, the second polarization mode has a resonance that may produce an asymmetry in the resonance lineshape of the first polarization mode used to measure a rotation. Even though the resonance frequency of the second polarization mode may be the same for the CW and CCW beams, the amplitude of light in such mode may be different, thus causing different observations, beyond the effect of rotation, of the resonance frequencies of the CW and CCW beams. Polarization-induced errors may severely limit the accuracy of the RFOG because determination of the resonance centers for each of the resonance frequencies of the CW and CCW beams directly affects the rotational rate measurement. The errors in the gyro generally depend on the magnitude of light propagating in the second polarization state.
Several mechanisms may couple light into the undesired polarization state of the fiber optic resonator. In general, light traveling in the undesired polarization state results from a combination of these mechanisms. As previously mentioned, light may be cross-coupled inside the re-circulating device, such as a fiber coupler. Light may also excite the second polarization state, or couple into the second polarization state, of the resonator when undesirably injected into the optical fiber with a component of the light in the undesired polarization state. This may be exacerbated by possible variances in the states of polarization of the fiber inside the resonator due to temperature or stress variation, thereby making repeated light launches into one polarization state of the resonator more difficult. Even if the lights beams are originally introduced to the coil of the RFOG in the first polarization mode, the optical fiber may have one or more imperfections that couple light into the second polarization mode. One way of limiting such cross-talk between polarization modes of the fiber resonator is to employ polarization preserving fiber. Polarization preserving fiber incorporates stresses defining different speeds of light (i.e., birefringence) that attenuate the cross-coupling of light from one polarization axis of the fiber to the other. This feature of polarization preserving fiber stabilizes the polarization mode of the ring resonator, thereby assisting the task of stably launching a fraction of light into a desired mode.
Using conventional optical fibers, particularly in polarization preserving fibers, the difference in the speed of light between light traveling on the two principle axes of polarization in the fiber typically varies with temperature. This variation can cause the relative resonance frequencies of the two polarization states to vary with temperature. In some instances, the resonance frequency of the undesired polarization state may coincide with the resonance frequency of the desired polarization state under some environmental conditions.
Polarization-induced errors may severely limit the accuracy of the RFOG because the accuracy of the determination of the resonance centers, and thus the resonance frequencies in the CW and CCW directions, directly affects the rotational rate measurement. Additionally, these errors in the measurement may change radically with respect to the temperature in conventional optical fibers due to the sensitivity of the associated birefringence to temperature.
Consequently, the gyro output may drift without influence from a variation in rotation rate. Thus, two primary error mechanisms are the excitation of light in the undesired polarization state, and the environmental instability of the resonance frequency of the undesired polarization state relative to that of the desired polarization state. Additional error mechanisms in an RFOG employing conventional glass fibers that are attributable to the propagation of light in the solid glass medium of the optical fiber include optical Kerr Effect, Stimulated Brillouin Scattering, and Raleigh back-scattering.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a fiber optic gyro that attenuates polarization errors in rotational rate measurements. In addition, it is desirable to provide a method for attenuating polarization errors in rotational rate measurements of a fiber optic gyro. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.